Jones Reflects on Season and Future of the Program

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After going through the trials of a tough season overseeing one of the youngest and least-experienced rosters in the country and suffering through the predictably trying results, Cal head coach Wyking Jones had the chance to step back and get away for a bit to recharge, refocus and reevaluate what went wrong in the 2017-18 season and what can built upon.

What did he do in his time away?

"Just watching film and took a break," said Jones. "I took about a week where I didn’t want to talk about basketball. Spent time with the family and then after about a week, 'Alright, we gotta get back into it.' Let the guys have a week where they just didn’t do anything. They just focused on school and went back to being just normal people. Just enjoying being a student and that’s it. 'You’re not a student-athlete right now, you’re just a student for the next week' and so we didn’t do anything and we didn’t really even talk too much basketball."

Coming into the season, Jones and staff made the calculation that with a distinctive lack of scorers on the roster, an uptempo, pressing style of play might level the playing field a bit and allow his young team to have a better chance than simply trying to match up 5-on-5 against more talented and experienced rosters on any given night.

“From the jump, from the press conference, to talking about style of play, I wanted to be aggressive and play the style of pressing and be aggressive offensively, but when it was all said and done, we weren’t ready to play that way," said Jones. "I think, when it was all said and done, I felt like we would have been better suited to ease into that style with our youth and with it being a new system.

"I also feel like I gave the guys too much freedom early on because I felt like that was the right thing to do. I always felt like you play better basketball when you have the freedom offensively to feel like you can just play your game. But going through the season I learned that we were a lot better when we slowed things down and worked to get the shot that we wanted and the ball in the hands of the guys that myself and my staff wanted the ball in their hands."

It was during one of the few bright spots of the season where the change of philosophy showed itself to be the appropriate course of action, as Jones and the Bears changed tracks and slowed the tempo against NCAA qualifier San Diego State in the Bears' 63-62 upset victory on the road December 9.

“San Diego State was a first time I felt like I just said, 'You know what, let’s just work clock,'" said Jones. '"We’re in a hostile environment. If we absolutely have a fast break transition opportunity, we’ll take it. But if it’s not an absolute transition opportunity, we’re gonna use some clock.' And I remember in that game Don([Coleman) played a lot of point guard for the first time and he even got a 10-second call walking the ball up the court one time.

"But that game we controlled tempo. We got the shot that we wanted and it wasn’t just us coming down and thinking that we had an open look, but it wasn’t really a great look. Or the person who was shooting the ball wasn’t necessarily who we wanted shooting the ball. There were certain guys who we wanted the ball in their hands so I felt like San Diego State was a good example of that.

The next game, the Bears again beat an NCAA qualifier, defeating Fullerton State, 95-89 in overtime.

Following the win over Fullerton, the Bears went on the road to Seattle and defeated Seattle University decisively, 81-59. Seattle U ended their season 20-14.

“Seattle up at their place, we slowed it down tremendously and we came away with a good win," said Jones. "And Stanford in the second half. I felt like we played to their tempo in the first half and in the second half when we really started to just really pick and choose who we wanted the ball, whose hands we wanted the ball in, we did a much better job and Justice ended up being that guy for that particular game.

"Even as late as Arizona on the road, we walked it up every single time. I told the guys, 'Look, don’t even look at the rim until there's 15 seconds left on the shot clock. We ran a spread action four out and one in: dribble hand off, dribble hand off, dribble hand off, dribble hand off, run some clock, and then we looked to attack and I thought that that played in our favor to the point that I think we were whatever it was. He (Juhwan Harris-Dyson) got the fifth foul and then Justice (Sueing) turned it over and they got a breakaway and that was the game."

Often it was the little things that separated the wins from tough losses and with a distinct lack of scorers and viable bench players on the roster, their margin for error was between slim and none.

“I always said to the guys that for us to win, everybody has to be able to give us something," said Jones. "It can’t be these three guys played well and these two guys were just ok. It was always a situation where for us to win, everybody had to give us something and when you go back and you look at the times we did win: San Diego State, Seattle, Oregon State, everybody came off that bench, everybody that was in that lineup gave us something. If somebody had an off night, we weren’t going to win. If somebody didn’t have a great night we probably weren’t going to win. So it was tough.”

The past is now the past and all the Bears can do is hope to learn from their mistakes and chart a new course with a deeper and more talented roster next season.

The Bears' recruiting class is off to a solid start, with a pair of talented 4 star wings in 6-7 Jacobi Gordon and 6-5 Matt Bradley along with 6-8 forward Andre Kelly. They hope to add two more bigs and possibly another point guard to go along with junior transfer Paris Austin.

“I’m very excited about those three guys," said Jones. "From a culture standpoint, they 100 percent fit what we’re all about. They’re all great young men.

"From a basketball standpoint, when you talk about Matt Bradley, he’s probably the first kid that I’ve ever recruited that he’s gonna get here and I’m gonna say you’re not allowed to lift weights. You can only do band work and stretching. Because he’s so muscular and physically imposing. But he’s a kid that he brings a high level of toughness and he’s physical. He uses that body. He can really shoot the ball from three and also midrange, and so to be able to add another shooter, because that was definitely something that we lacked this year, to be able to add a shooter, someone that can stretch the floor is what I’m most excited about with him and and he’s a competitor.

“Now Jacobi is a kid that I’m excited about because I can play him at a bunch of different positions because he’s versatile. He’s a really good rebounder, he shoots the ball, he posts up, he can take you off the bounce. And so with him I’m very excited about his versatility and being able to play him at a bunch of positions and he has a level of toughness that I’m excited about, as well as a high IQ.

“Andre is probably the least talked about of the three, but I’m really really excited about him, because he knows how to score the ball in a number of ways. He shoots a three, he’s good at pick and pop, he’s got really really good footwork, great feet, great hands, he feels really really comfortable shooting it (from 3), and he’ll get better when he gets here. So I’m really excited about him even though he’s probably the most under-the-radar guy because you've got a guy who’s a natural scorer at the post while Kingsley was a defensive-minded guy. Marcus had games where he scored, had games where he didn’t. Now you got a guy that feels really comfortable putting the ball in the hole. So I’m excited to have a guy in the program that can do that. Ivan obviously could do it when he was here. So you have somebody that you can count on that you can throw the ball in to them and then get a bucket.”

Jones and staff have at least two more scholarships available after junior guard Don Coleman announced his intention to transfer and the Bears are working hard to add some size to their roster with the spring signing period approaching in two weeks, running through late May.

"With our situation, the graduate transfer is definitely a prospect that we’re looking at," said Jones. "I think everybody is. If you see a grad transfer that can play, I think everybody in the country is interested in that. You can’t make up for experience. Experience is everything. The game’s a lot younger because you got so many guys that are coming in and they’re leaving and leaving early and the really good ones don’t stay for very long, and so experience can put you over the top."

Fortunately for the Bears, they have several solid leads in the grad transfer department and hope and expect to sign a viable grad transfer post player in the coming months.

The Bears have also gone hard after 6-11 5 star Prolific Prep power forward Jordan Brown and are amongst his leading finalists a month after his official visit as he prepares to play in this weekend's McDonald's All-American game.

The Bears will look much different next season with a lot of new talent joining the team and their trio of key freshmen -guard Darius McNeill, wing Juhwan Harris-Dyson and forward Justice Sueing- will have a year of experience and a lot of minutes under their belt to help smooth the transition with Junior Paris Austin taking over at the point and five new players pushing to start or see solid minutes on the floor.

"They’re all hungry to get back out there and start their sophomore year and be able to put their freshman year in the rear view," said Jones of the trio. "Get ready to compete. They’re competitors. So they’re all working hard in their offseason workouts to try to get better so we don’t have to go through the type of season that we had this year.

“I think they stayed positive. I think they continued to fight. I think everybody saw that. They didn’t throw in the towel and continued to compete. It started with myself and my staff.

"The best thing that happened to me this year is, late in the season I had a conversation with Pete Newell, Jr. and he said, ‘Coach, you’ll be fine.’ And I said, ‘Really?’ This was probably two months ago and he said to me, ‘My dad was 1-11 in conference his first year and 9-16 overall.’ And he said, ‘You’ll be fine.’ It made me feel better.”

Lest anyone feel that the added perspective and encouragement might be taken as license to take the Bears rebuilding project at a slow pace, one look in Jones' eyes will tell you that he and his staff never want to go through a season like last season's disaster again.

The ingredients the Bears are assembling for their 2018-19 season have the look of a far more competitive program. How competive will largely rest of the shoulders of the final key elements of the 2018 recruiting class as it comes together in the coming weeks.

Sifting thru...Author says we are looking for 2 bigs and a point.The bigs, obviously, are an immediate need.The point... I get that in that Coleman is gone and Darius is not a true pg. but then there's Paris available for 2 years and so those two could handle it together, right? Well, okay, maybe you take a top flight pg this year to grow into it while Paris runs the show for 2 years, the we'd have experience by the time Paris leaves.So, if you want to view it that way, it's not as desperate as the bigs position, but a need nonetheless.

But then, wait, we already have Winston for just that, right? Depth in 18/19, and grow into it beyond Paris, right?Well, in looking for another pg now, that only tells me what I think those of us watching already knew: Winston is not the answer. Thus, will he transfer, or will he find a way to Chauca (yes, that's a verb) and turn his basketball skills into a Cal degree, no matter whether he sees minutes on the court?

we should have had Chauca as our backup PG last yearhe was more experienced, a solid PG, and would have put another shooter on the floorwe basically traded Chauca for Winstonas the espn article pointed out today, the name of the modern game is 3 point shootingwe need a 3 point shooter more than a PG in my opinion (if we get both, that would be perfect)

HD:Well, I was not high on what chauca brought to the court, so while I completely agree with you that in hindsight Chauca would have helped the team more than Winston (particularly considering the renewed 4-yr scholarship commitment), I can understand why Jones rolled the dice. Don't think it will pay off, as evidenced by already going after another pg in James.

He said two bigs and a point because we are going after Akinjo. If Akinjo were a shooting guard it would be two bigs and a shooting guard.

haha.yep.

but, still, we wouldn't be going after akinjo if winston were his equal, regardless of whether they play PG or SG, and I imagine it is nowhere close. Throw McCullough into that logic. Point is, misses. Re-do.

He said two bigs and a point because we are going after Akinjo. If Akinjo were a shooting guard it would be two bigs and a shooting guard.

haha.yep.

but, still, we wouldn't be going after akinjo if winston were his equal, regardless of whether they play PG or SG, and I imagine it is nowhere close. Throw McCullough into that logic. Point is, misses. Re-do.

I'm not all that troubled by misses. All coaches miss on recruits they think will pan out (I'm guessing that Calipari thinks Marcus Lee was a "miss" even if he was a 5*). What is more important is getting enough hits. You don't need 13 players to be solid, but you do need 8-9.

Sifting thru...Author says we are looking for 2 bigs and a point.The bigs, obviously, are an immediate need.The point... I get that in that Coleman is gone and Darius is not a true pg. but then there's Paris available for 2 years and so those two could handle it together, right? Well, okay, maybe you take a top flight pg this year to grow into it while Paris runs the show for 2 years, the we'd have experience by the time Paris leaves.So, if you want to view it that way, it's not as desperate as the bigs position, but a need nonetheless.

But then, wait, we already have Winston for just that, right? Depth in 18/19, and grow into it beyond Paris, right?Well, in looking for another pg now, that only tells me what I think those of us watching already knew: Winston is not the answer. Thus, will he transfer, or will he find a way to Chauca (yes, that's a verb) and turn his basketball skills into a Cal degree, no matter whether he sees minutes on the court?

My recollection about Winston is not that he was a pass-first PG; but that he was a kind-of not-that-tall tweener with enough advanced scoring skills to have put up like-42 in an upset playoff win against Harris-Dyson's team in high school.

So, if he's gonna be that grow-into-it guy you're talking about, it's not gonna be the most natural thing for him.

He's gonna have to decide to develop himself into that kind of player by dint of grit and intelligence (ala Draymond, but at a different position); and I also have the vague impression that he does have the personal qualities (and enough skills to start with) that he could be that person, depending on the degree of want-to-do-that which he possesses.

FWIW Wyking always seems to say the right thing and is interesting to boot.

None of this matters of course, as he will be scrutinized on performance in Year 2.

Well, some of the right things anyway. He made some awful mistakes in his plan for the season and he's owned up to them. Trying to teach a complex pressing defense to inexperienced players and then giving them a lot of freedom on offense. Yikes! Was he trying to reinvent the way basketball is played and coached? At least he had the wisdom to recognize some of what was wrong and was not too stubborn to change some of those things.

What troubles me is I don't see from this interview any mention of the elephant in the room, and that is the defense. It was Cal's worst defense in 23 years as Cal gave up nearly 80 points per game and dropped from #18 in the country in points allowed to #294. It was the 6th worst defense in Cal history. You have go back an additional 20 years to 1976 to find a slightly worse defense.

Jones did not talk about the defense, about what was wrong with it, and what he will do to make it better next season. When he talks about his incoming recruits, he doesn't say a single word about their defensive abilities. It is all about their offense, all the wonderful moves and skills and ability to score that they have. That is all nice, but he still has to overcome all the defensive deficiencies the current team have, a team which will lose BOTH of its rim protectors, both of its post defenders. That should have been the heart of any defensive strategy this last season, and it wasn't. One player, was deemed not good enough to start, and the other was too often in foul trouble. Who will defend the post and protect the rim next season? Kelly? The two unknown bigs who might be coming in? An improved Roman Davis and Grant Anticevich? Last season's defense could have been, should have been better than it was. We will also lose Coleman and Hamilton, two of the better perimeter defenders we have. On paper it looks to me that unless we teach a lot of fundamental defense over the off season, and hope that the recruits coming in will have more defensive ability than the usual recruits, we could very well give up more than the 77.6 points we gave up this season. You just can't give up 80 points a game and hope to win even half your games.

He said two bigs and a point because we are going after Akinjo. If Akinjo were a shooting guard it would be two bigs and a shooting guard.

haha.yep.

but, still, we wouldn't be going after akinjo if winston were his equal, regardless of whether they play PG or SG, and I imagine it is nowhere close. Throw McCullough into that logic. Point is, misses. Re-do.

Disagree on a couple of counts.

First, Winston was never projected to perform like a consensus top 100 recruit, so there was no miss. Teams need role players, which is why I predict he isn't going anywhere.

Second, even if Winston shocked the world and played like Akinjo's equal, we would still be going after local Top 100 talent that fit Cal's profile, and who's recruitment just happened to open up right before the late signing period - regardless of position.

But I'll disagree on the 1st - which was a compare between Chauca and Winston. If we let Chauca go so we could get Winston, and the post-season judgement was that Chauca would have been better, then it was a "miss".

But I missed your prediction that he stays. What do you think about others on the roster?

Any of the freshmen besides Sueing, Harris-Dyson and McNeill may or may not stay, for a variety of reasons. We'll see.

Why would you assume those 3 are guaranteed to stay? Usually it's players you don't want to leave that transfer. A player needs to have shown something for another school to show interest in them. And Jones already used his one freebie dismissal that comes with a coaching change on Chauca.

My prediction is we're stuck with the players that didn't contribute much this year, and if anyone else does transfer, it will be someone we're all going to be disappointed about.

But I missed your prediction that he stays. What do you think about others on the roster?

Any of the freshmen besides Sueing, Harris-Dyson and McNeill may or may not stay, for a variety of reasons. We'll see.

Why would you assume those 3 are guaranteed to stay? Usually it's players you don't want to leave that transfer. A player needs to have shown something for another school to show interest in them. And Jones already used his one freebie dismissal that comes with a coaching change on Chauca.

My prediction is we're stuck with the players that didn't contribute much this year, and if anyone else does transfer, it will be someone we're all going to be disappointed about.

A player might want to transfer to a school where he thinks he might be more likely to get playing time. One of the players in question is from a different part of the country, another is from a whole 'nother country. Sometimes that's a factor.

Coaches nowadays usually have "frank talks" with the players at the end of the season. If a player doesn't project to ever contribute, these talks can serve to discourage them from coming back, without having to pull their schollie, which is rather unethical and can give a coach a bad reputation.

Sometimes the player decides to stay anyway. Maybe he develops into a useful reserve, or even just a positive presence on the team who gets a degree. That's cool.

Yes, after a season like this, it's always a risk that ANY of the freshmen might want to leave. Let's put it this way: I hope McNeill likes California and hasn't gotten too homesick.

But I missed your prediction that he stays. What do you think about others on the roster?

Any of the freshmen besides Sueing, Harris-Dyson and McNeill may or may not stay, for a variety of reasons. We'll see.

Why would you assume those 3 are guaranteed to stay? Usually it's players you don't want to leave that transfer. A player needs to have shown something for another school to show interest in them. And Jones already used his one freebie dismissal that comes with a coaching change on Chauca.

My prediction is we're stuck with the players that didn't contribute much this year, and if anyone else does transfer, it will be someone we're all going to be disappointed about.

Those three are staying. And be prepared to be incorrect in your predictions.

But I'll disagree on the 1st - which was a compare between Chauca and Winston. If we let Chauca go so we could get Winston, and the post-season judgement was that Chauca would have been better, then it was a "miss".

My first point had nothing to do with Chauca. It was about you suggesting Winston was a miss because he didn't turn out to be as good as we think Akinjo might be.

But I missed your prediction that he stays. What do you think about others on the roster?

If someone put a gun to my head and asked who were the three most likely to leave, I'd have to go with McCullough, Anticevich, and McNeill. That's not to say I think three more will leave. The first for obvious reasons, the second because he is a long way from home and didn't appear to fit into the scheme as a frosh, and the third because he is also far from home, he has shown a willingness to change teams in the past, he didn't exactly show the best body language when things didn't go his way, and he may feel like he has been recruited over.

But I missed your prediction that he stays. What do you think about others on the roster?

If someone put a gun to my head and asked who were the three most likely to leave, I'd have to go with McCullough, Anticevich, and McNeill. That's not to say I think three more will leave. The first for obvious reasons, the second because he is a long way from home and didn't appear to fit into the scheme as a frosh, and the third because he is also far from home, he has shown a willingness to change teams in the past, he didn't exactly show the best body language when things didn't go his way, and he may feel like he has been recruited over.

I would suggest blind speculation is not helpful

I am not speculating to say that McNeil tweeted something very positive about the future of the team, Dyson posted a video referencing his no.2 for the Bears, and Sueing said in an interview earlier that 'we plan to stay together'

But I missed your prediction that he stays. What do you think about others on the roster?

If someone put a gun to my head and asked who were the three most likely to leave, I'd have to go with McCullough, Anticevich, and McNeill. That's not to say I think three more will leave. The first for obvious reasons, the second because he is a long way from home and didn't appear to fit into the scheme as a frosh, and the third because he is also far from home, he has shown a willingness to change teams in the past, he didn't exactly show the best body language when things didn't go his way, and he may feel like he has been recruited over.

Bradley and Gordon were recruited before McNeill played his first game. Akinjo doesn't change anything for him. Unless there's a 5* SG that we don't know about in play, McNeill hasn't been recruited over.

But I missed your prediction that he stays. What do you think about others on the roster?

If someone put a gun to my head and asked who were the three most likely to leave, I'd have to go with McCullough, Anticevich, and McNeill. That's not to say I think three more will leave. The first for obvious reasons, the second because he is a long way from home and didn't appear to fit into the scheme as a frosh, and the third because he is also far from home, he has shown a willingness to change teams in the past, he didn't exactly show the best body language when things didn't go his way, and he may feel like he has been recruited over.

I would suggest blind speculation is not helpful

I am not speculating to say that McNeil tweeted something very positive about the future of the team, Dyson posted a video referencing his no.2 for the Bears, and Sueing said in an interview earlier that 'we plan to stay together'

We are all Cal fans and root for the players to succeed, but remember that we discuss opinions and analysis here and don't necessarily couch all of our words and thoughts so that they will be "helpful".

This conversation is plenty respectful to the players, IMO. It's like when we discuss individual players' performances and abilities in a candid but respectful fashion. It's fine. (Sure, sometimes posters will cross the line and berate the players, which isn't fine, but this isn't one of those situations. Again, my opinion.)

But I missed your prediction that he stays. What do you think about others on the roster?

If someone put a gun to my head and asked who were the three most likely to leave, I'd have to go with McCullough, Anticevich, and McNeill. That's not to say I think three more will leave. The first for obvious reasons, the second because he is a long way from home and didn't appear to fit into the scheme as a frosh, and the third because he is also far from home, he has shown a willingness to change teams in the past, he didn't exactly show the best body language when things didn't go his way, and he may feel like he has been recruited over.

I would suggest blind speculation is not helpful

I am not speculating to say that McNeil tweeted something very positive about the future of the team, Dyson posted a video referencing his no.2 for the Bears, and Sueing said in an interview earlier that 'we plan to stay together'

We are all Cal fans and root for the players to succeed, but remember that we discuss opinions and analysis here and don't necessarily couch all of our words and thoughts so that they will be "helpful".

This conversation is plenty respectful to the players, IMO. It's like when we discuss individual players' performances and abilities in a candid but respectful fashion. It's fine. (Sure, sometimes posters will cross the line and berate the players, which isn't fine, but this isn't one of those situations. Again, my opinion.)

fair enough Big C. I would say that my statement was stated in the most respectful manner. it was a mere suggestion

Core of Sueing, McNeill, JHD stay.Roman Davis as well.Some have questioned Anticevich, Winston, and McCullough because we love BearInsider chat rooms and have nothing better to do with ourselves. Added to by Gordon, Bradley, Kelly and Paris Austin. That's 11 scholarships set as of now.Looking for additional such as Jordon, Akinjo, Connor.

I think Anticevich stays for sure! Right now he is the tallest guy on the team. Plenty of PT ahead, and he is smart to know that the Cal degree and experience is not something he wants to forgo just as he's getting started. I have a friend who married a girl from Sydney. I learned that Ausies feel very isolated from rest of world and so go to big extremes to reconnect with western civilization, US and Europe. Grant being here is ideal for him because the California coast is as close as any of that and fills the connection issue that all Ausies seek. So, I don't see him going back to Australia yet at all. IF he were big time recruited over, maybe he goes and plays in England or something. But do they have scholarship opportunities like the US? Forget about it, folks. As of now, there are reasons to stay. He's got a lot of open road ahead of him now with ML and KO gone.

But I missed your prediction that he stays. What do you think about others on the roster?

If someone put a gun to my head and asked who were the three most likely to leave, I'd have to go with McCullough, Anticevich, and McNeill. That's not to say I think three more will leave. The first for obvious reasons, the second because he is a long way from home and didn't appear to fit into the scheme as a frosh, and the third because he is also far from home, he has shown a willingness to change teams in the past, he didn't exactly show the best body language when things didn't go his way, and he may feel like he has been recruited over.

I would suggest blind speculation is not helpful

I am not speculating to say that McNeil tweeted something very positive about the future of the team, Dyson posted a video referencing his no.2 for the Bears, and Sueing said in an interview earlier that 'we plan to stay together'

We are all Cal fans and root for the players to succeed, but remember that we discuss opinions and analysis here and don't necessarily couch all of our words and thoughts so that they will be "helpful".

This conversation is plenty respectful to the players, IMO. It's like when we discuss individual players' performances and abilities in a candid but respectful fashion. It's fine. (Sure, sometimes posters will cross the line and berate the players, which isn't fine, but this isn't one of those situations. Again, my opinion.)

fair enough Big C. I would say that my statement was stated in the most respectful manner. it was a mere suggestion

But I missed your prediction that he stays. What do you think about others on the roster?

Any of the freshmen besides Sueing, Harris-Dyson and McNeill may or may not stay, for a variety of reasons. We'll see.

Why would you assume those 3 are guaranteed to stay? Usually it's players you don't want to leave that transfer. A player needs to have shown something for another school to show interest in them. And Jones already used his one freebie dismissal that comes with a coaching change on Chauca.

My prediction is we're stuck with the players that didn't contribute much this year, and if anyone else does transfer, it will be someone we're all going to be disappointed about.

A player might want to transfer to a school where he thinks he might be more likely to get playing time. One of the players in question is from a different part of the country, another is from a whole 'nother country. Sometimes that's a factor.

Coaches nowadays usually have "frank talks" with the players at the end of the season. If a player doesn't project to ever contribute, these talks can serve to discourage them from coming back, without having to pull their schollie, which is rather unethical and can give a coach a bad reputation.

Sometimes the player decides to stay anyway. Maybe he develops into a useful reserve, or even just a positive presence on the team who gets a degree. That's cool.

Yes, after a season like this, it's always a risk that ANY of the freshmen might want to leave. Let's put it this way: I hope McNeill likes California and hasn't gotten too homesick.

McNeill's comments on Twitter don't sound at all like he's going anywhere.